Juan Arboleda was searching for his professor.
Arboleda, a 19-year-old UF microbiology and cell science sophomore, looked online, but found nothing.
He wandered around the genetics lab until a security guard guided him to his destination.
Students facing a similar dilemma have a solution in UF’s newly updated directory.
Starting June 25, the new-look UF Directory will replace the online UF Phonebook, launched in 2008.
When the original program was launched, mobile devices did not have the capability to perform complicated searches or the computing power necessary to conduct searches for such a large database, Tracy Gale, UF’s Information Technology communications manager, wrote in an email.
“As with all technology, advances in programming and capabilities require service upgrades,” Gale said.
The updated directory provides a less cluttered interface that will be responsive to desktops, laptops and mobile devices. Just this year, about 70,000 people have used the UF Phonebook, according to the UFIT website.
Jacolyn Mitchelson, the Innovation Academy’s senior secretary, uses the online UF Phonebook often to locate staff and faculty on campus.
When using the updated UF Directory, she was able to locate a name she did not find in the current version of the phonebook.
Students will be able to access the new-look UF Directory through a link located on the current Directory-UF Phonebook website, directory.ufl.edu.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 6/19/2014 under the headline "UF Phonebook gets facelift, update from 2008 version"]
